German military rep slams planned defence spending

Andre Wuestner, Chairman of the German Armed Forces Association said that the proposed increase in defence spending earmarked in Germany’s 2025 draft budget is nowhere near enough to “do justice” to the current security situation nor to “Germany’s responsibility to the world” | File Photo: picture alliance / Michael Kappeler/dpa

Berlin (dpa) – The proposed increase in defence spending earmarked in Germany’s 2025 draft budget is nowhere near enough to “do justice” to the current security situation nor to “Germany’s responsibility to the world,” the head of the German Armed Forces Association has said.

André Wüstner, the chairman of the organization which represents the interests of some 200,000 active soldiers, reservists and former army members, told dpa: “The German government may want to get through this legislative period with this budget, but the Bundeswehr as an essential part of our security architecture – and therefore all of us – are paying the price.”

Under the terms of the preliminary 2025 national budget agreed on Friday, German military spending is set to increase by only EUR 1.2 billion (USD 1.3 billion) from currently around €52 billion ($56 billion), far below the roughly EUR 7 billion demanded by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

The leaders of Germany’s coalition government reached a breakthrough on the national budget after weeks of difficult negotiations culminated in consultations throughout the night on Thursday.

With Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) refusing to release the country’s debt brake on government expenditure, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) ruling out cuts to welfare spending, Germany’s armed forces appear to have lost out, just two years after Scholz announced a historic rearmament programme.

Wüstner described the security situation in Europe as “the most dangerous since the fall of the Iron Curtain,” citing political instability and a lack of certainty regarding Washington’s commitment to Europe’s security in case November’s presidential elections result in a second Donald Trump presidency. Wüstner called on parliament to make “massive adjustments” to the draft budget. He said, additional funding was needed to cover “the dramatic rise in operating expenses – from power generators to operating supplies and special tool kits to personnel.” In addition, without further investment in the defence industry, the recently launched expansion of capacity would quickly begin to stall again, Wüstner said.

Christian Lindner, Germany’s Minister of Finance, speaks at the Real Estate Industry Day on June 11, 2024, in Berlin | Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa

This comes after German Finance Minister Christian Lindner defended decisions on next year’s budget taken by the ruling three-party coalition, in particular those regarding the Defence Ministry, in comments to the Bild newspaper on Saturday.

“The defence minister is getting more money than in the previous budget, but he is getting less money than what he called for in public,” Lindner, a member of the pro-business liberal FDP, told the mass-circulation tabloid. “This is the entirely normal budgetary process,” he said, pointing out that a minister worked passionately for his department and asked for the maximum. “The task of the finance minister and the federal government overall is then to check what is desirable and what is truly necessary,” Lindner said.

Pointing to the war in Ukraine and increased security concerns in Europe, Pistorius had called for a boost to his budget by more than EUR 6 billion.

On Friday, Scholz said that the regular defence budget would total EUR 80 billion from 2028, once a special fund of EUR 100 billion, announced shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, had been exhausted.

The German cabinet has been engaged in a wrangle over the budget for weeks, with Lindner insisting that the so-called “debt brake” in the constitution should not be eased to allow more deficit spending.

The leaders of Germany’s coalition government reached a breakthrough on the national budget after weeks of difficult negotiations culminated in consultations throughout the night on Thursday.

Speaking in May on a visit to the United States, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius had spoken of an “additional requirement of EUR 6.5 billion to EUR 7.5 billion for the coming year,” only rising in the subsequent years. He has warned of an impending “armaments stop” after the emergency EUR 100 billion fund for the Bundeswehr agreed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is spent by 2028.

The current budget for the Bundeswehr stands at EUR 52 billion.